BUFFALO, NY - A judge has quashed a subpoena filed by the Hamburg Central School District, seeking computer records in order to identity a blogger who has often been critical of district administration, and who published excerpts from a secretly recorded closed-door meeting of the school board.

The attorney for Concerned Hamburger, Joseph M. Finnerty, successfully argued before State Supreme Court Justice Diane Devlin, that granting the subpoena would violate his client's First Amendment right to anonymous speech.

Concerned Hamburger, as noted by Finnerty, is not accused of participating in the recording of the meeting , and only published brief portions of what was discussed after a recording was sent to them anonymously.

In arguing to quash the subpoena which sought the identity of the blogger, Finnerty reminded the judge that the U.S. Supreme Court has taken a dim view of attempts to curtail anonymous speech, while noting the Federalist Papers themselves were published anonymously.

An attorney for the school district, however, said that the subpoena had nothing to do with trying to curtail free speech rights.

"That's not what this is about, said Richard Sullivan while arguing in court. "They can blog their brains out, for all we care."